Social media is many things - but it has not traditionally/historically been a steady source of traffic for websites. This seems to be changing at least according to one new report.
Shareaholic just released its Social Media Traffic Report and for many it confirms that the shift from search to social has reached a point that it will be difficult to ignore moving forward. The data reveals that the top eight social networks drove 31.24 percent of overall traffic to sites in Dec. 2014, up from 22.71 percent the same time last year.
What's the reason for shift? Shareaholic's Danny Wong suggested that "Over the years (and in 2014, especially), our media consumption habits have changed dramatically. We rely less on homepages and search engines, discovering news pertinent to us through social media and direct messaging on mobile apps."
It's tough to deny the influence of social media today, but it's equally difficult to believe that Facebook and its competitors are managing to drive such a significant volume of traffic - unless that's the primary way traffic is generated (as is probably the case with Shareaholic users).